Sunrisers Hyderabad thrashed Kolkata Knight Riders by nine wickets with five overs to spare to hand the visitors their fifth successive loss in IPL 2019. Despite a fifty from Chris Lynn, KKR could only manage 159/8. In response, fifties from David Warner and Jonny Bairstow saw the hosts comprehensively get over the line to move level on points with fourth-placed KXIP.
Here are the three major takeaways from SRH's win over KKR:
KKR's batting line-up comes under scrutiny
"I believe that (I should have batted at No 4). Honestly, I think sometimes you have to flexible as a team. Looking at the make-up of our team, I would not mind going to bat at No 4."
Those were the words of Andre Russell after he almost pulled off a miracle for KKR against RCB in their previous encounter. KKR's leading run-getter and the only one in the side with more than 300 runs, who averages well over 60 and has a strike rate of over 200, certainly has a point.
And after wondering why he doesn't bat further up the order and inflict more carnage, where does Russell come in to bat in the next game? At No.7, coming in during the 16th over.
With the middle-order not really firing and Russell chomping at the bit to get out to bat, one wonders why KKR don't just send him further up and see if that might be a worthwhile strategy.
Records tumble in Hyderabad
No batsman has scored more runs against a particular opponent in the IPL than David Warner. His 829 runs against KKR, beat Suresh Raina's record of 818, which also came against KKR. That was far from the only record he broke on the day.
During his fifty, Warner also got past 500 runs this season. That was the fifth time he has scored 500+ runs in a season. No batsman has done it more often and he joined Virat Kohli as the only batsmen to achieve that.
Warner wasn't the only one to break records. Bairstow's unbeaten 80 helped him break Shreyas Iyer's record of most runs in debut IPL season. The Englishman has 445 runs so far, beating the record of 439 set by Iyer for Delhi Daredevils in 2015.
Warner and Bairstow also broke the record for most runs by an opening pair in a season. The previous record was set by Warner and Dhawan in 2016 when they added 731. In fact, the top four opening pairs all feature Warner.
Where do KKR go from here?
Five successive losses have meant that KKR have gone from going toe-to-toe with CSK for the top spot to being two points away from the fourth spot.
From their first five games, they won four and the only one they lost was in the Super Over and since their win over RR on April 7, they haven't even come close to winning. But the warning signs were there for all to see even at the start.
Russell kept rescuing them from all manner of dire straits and the bowlers kept leaking runs. Their experienced duo of Uthappa and Karthik weren't really firing and as the same problems have persisted, the only change has been the fact that Russell has been unable to rescue them as he continues to come in with just a few overs to spare.
Despite making changes, KKR couldn't change their batting woes and with two games against MI still to come and an away game against KXIP, who are formidable at home, they have an uphill task to just make the playoffs.